From a reader:
Did Ya Notice...
August 30, 2016 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
Did ya notice that when people stood up to police murder and righteously went into the streets, everyone in this society and even around the world had to take a position on “Black lives matter”? Did ya notice that this woke people to the demonstrable truth that in this society, historically and down to the present, Black lives are treated as if they do not?
Then, did ya notice that in response, the defenders of this system—whether they be running for president, heading a police department, or a talking head on TV—started talking about “don’t Blue lives matter, too”?
Did ya notice that every time someone on TV who defends Black people for rising up, or who points out that if a Black person kills a police officer they will be executed on the spot, but if the police kill a Black person—the police are not charged, not prosecuted, and not sentenced... that they are then asked by the moderator, “Well, don’t you think Blue lives matter, too”? And did ya notice that too often the activists being interviewed will accept this equation?
Did ya notice that, as the Democrats are wont to do, the whole issue got “re-framed”? Re-framed by Hillary Clinton as “We must put ourselves in the shoes of mothers who have lost their children—and in the shoes of police who are afraid to walk out the door to go to work every day.” Everyone’s “narrative,” you see, is equally valid.
Did ya notice that no president ever goes to the funerals of people murdered by police, but every dead cop merits the appearance of at least one major politician or even a presidential address by Obama?
And did ya notice that this “re-framing” is intended to turn inside out and upside down the actual reality of police who kill under the color of authority and with impunity? Did ya notice that this “re-framing” is meant to blunt the truth of 100s and 100s of videos where the police are caught red-handed on camera and even with this—over and over again—no charges are filed?
Did ya notice that every time the police shoot someone down, even a child, all they have to say is that they “felt” their life was in danger?
But do ya think that a Black or Latino person who might reasonably decide to defend themselves from imminent danger of being shot to death by a cop will have their defense treated as legitimate by the media or the courts?
Did ya notice that this “re-framing” of Blue lives matter just as much as Black lives—based on this fallacious “equation”—gives ground and credibility to the fascistically fanged rhetoric of Rudolph Giuliani as well as the more “reasoned” New York City police chief William Bratton, who together with Giuliani, laid down the architecture of massive, discriminatory, and consequently murderous racial profiling?
Did ya notice that when Rudolph Giuliani, bloated and spitting, with genocide in his heart, said, “We are coming for you!” he feels no obligation to say Black lives matter, too?
Did ya notice that when you equate two things or two aspects of real things in contention with real life-and-death consequences—but which are in fact not equal—you end up obliterating the important and essential aspect of reality and truth? And did ya notice that people are being trained to think this way in order to blunt and cripple the people’s strength and sense of conviction?
Did ya notice that this leads to reconciliation where truth is only the first victim?
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